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A Micro Grid for Puerto Rico

Another genius marketing move from EM to send Power Packs to Puerto Rico but a key question is if devastations like in Florida or Puerto Rico may path the way and accelerate efforts to a more resilient and sustainable micro grid power system?

If so, the demand for systems like already installed in Kauai, American Samoa and Australia (in the works) will increase and the so far underestimated and undervalued Tesla Energy unit will prosper.

I heard about this. It's a brilliant PR move on the part of Tesla, as well as badly needed.

Texas and Florida are very resistant to adopting new energy tech and Puerto Rico (the other PR) has been under emergency financial management that has basically left the island's economy crippled (not all that different from what the austerity measures did in Greece). It would make great sense to rebuild the energy infrastructure in all those places taking advantage of the abundant solar power, but the powers that be are going to resist it.

As they have to rebuild anyway given the devastation I wonder if they use the opportunity to build it in a way that the damage next time is reduces and situations like that can be handled much better. On the long run such an investment will pay back in particular in areas like PR where energy prices are high.

As they have to rebuild anyway given the devastation I wonder if they use the opportunity to build it in a way that the damage next time is reduces and situations like that can be handled much better. On the long run such an investment will pay back in particular in areas like PR where energy prices are high.

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It makes perfect sense, but Americans don't always do what makes sense. The US pays more and gets less for health care than any developed country, but politically it can't be fixed. The party in power now wants to get rid of the advancements made by the last administration.

The tragedy in Las Vegas this week highlight a need to do something to put some reasonable restrictions on guns. Over 90% of Americans think some restrictions are a good thing (though few are for an overall ban), but one party continually pushes to remove what restrictions are already there.

There is a book recommended by another forum member called American Nations. It's been out a few years and Amazon has a lot of used copies. I read it this summer and I found it really did a great job of explaining the underlying fault lines in American politics. The US is made up of a number of different cultures with different values. Much like Germany and France are different cultures, the US Northeast and the Deep South are different cultures. The gap between the two are probably bigger than exist between Germany and France today. More like those two countries a century ago.

Some American cultures want to become more like Europe or Canada or other developed countries, but we are held back by other cultures who want something different. The cultures most resistant to change are running Florida and Texas right now. Puerto Rico is essentially a vassal territory under the thumb of money managers and they don't have control over their own fate. The island should become a state where they would be on equal footing with the rest of the country, but it's been divided 50/50 between statehood and breaking off to become its own country.

Puerto Rico is a very different culture from the rest of the US. But South Florida is similar culture. The Republicans would probably never go for PR statehood because it would almost certainly become a safe Democratic state like Hawaii.

Curious if PR gov will respond .... and we get a deal like with Australia....

Elon Musk‏Verified account @elonmusk
Replying to @stapf
The Tesla team has done this for many smaller islands around the world, but there is no scalability limit, so it can be done for Puerto Rico too. Such a decision would be in the hands of the PR govt, PUC, any commercial stakeholders and, most importantly, the people of PR.

They can't afford it. What Musk is hoping for is that the US government forgives their debt and hands him a blank check.

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Well, lets put it that way. PR needs energy anyhow and in the mid term the Tesla option is way cheaper for them. The question you raise is therefore mainly a cash flow question and thats a discussion for banks and Financial institutions or maybe even the World Bank.

Well, lets put it that way. PR needs energy anyhow and in the mid term the Tesla option is way cheaper for them. The question you raise is therefore mainly a cash flow question and thats a discussion for banks and Financial institutions or maybe even the World Bank.

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What institution is going to loan them money with their junk credit rating?

Greece has a terrible outlook and is still fighting with IMF and Eurozone over debt relief/bailouts.

I don’t know why you keep mentioning cash flow. Puerto Rico doesn’t have any. That’s why they are bankrupt. Government bailouts are not cash flow.

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Greece had a terrible outlook and is on the way up after being almost bankrupt because of running out of cash flow. Its a great example how the EU(IMF helped a country to recover although its obviously still a long way to go. They are still deep in depth but can survive now because they have enough options to finance and get cash to refinance.

This Article may help you to answer you question about financing for PR.

If an island wants to solve it's negative cashflow problem, a good way to start is by not leeching 10% of your GDP to Saudi Arabia, Oklahoma City and Texas. An 85% solar/wind/storage solution keeps the vast majority of energy costs on the island within the domestic banks, contractors and citizenry.

Greece had a terrible outlook and is on the way up after being almost bankrupt because of running out of cash flow. Its a great example how the EU(IMF helped a country to recover although its obviously still a long way to go. They are still deep in depth but can survive now because they have enough options to finance and get cash to refinance.

This Article may help you to answer you question about financing for PR.

The financial risks posed to the rest of the EU from Greece have more or less been contained. And by that I mean still not solved, but it took six years for the ECB to isolate the systematic risks Greece posed. The only reason Greece is still even functioning as a nation state, as opposed to reverting back to a geographic expression is because of cash infusions from Germany. As soon as Italy's banks, Spain's banks, and Deutsche bank implode within the next year or two, Greece is going to go down even worse than Puerto Rico.

The financial risks posed to the rest of the EU from Greece have more or less been contained. And by that I mean still not solved, but it took six years for the ECB to isolate the systematic risks Greece posed. The only reason Greece is still even functioning as a nation state, as opposed to reverting back to a geographic expression is because of cash infusions from Germany. As soon as Italy's banks, Spain's banks, and Deutsche bank implode within the next year or two, Greece is going to go down even worse than Puerto Rico.

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Fully agree except your last sentence. We won't see any system relevant banks go down in Europe and Greece will stabilize on the mid and long term further. There is enough will and money available to prevent that.

However lets put this aside and keep the thread for Tesla if you don't mind.

Fully agree except your last sentence. We won't see any system relevant banks go down in Europe and Greece will stabilize on the mid and long term further. There is enough will and money available to prevent that.

However lets put this aside and keep the thread for Tesla if you don't mind.

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Elon and all his billiaire buddies that like to complain on Twitter all day should put their money where their mouth is.

do any of you realize that this concept is addressing the wrong problem in PR?
the problem there is the damage of the delivery grid, the power generating plants for the most part made it through the storm undamaged, the transmission lines are all down because of a lack of maintenance and preemptive harding of the system.